PRISON TELEGRAPHY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1424, 15 June 1899, Page 53

PRISON TELEGRAPHY.

A case of robbery from the person of £B2 in bank-notes, in which two men woe charged with the offence, was before the Nelson Police Magistrate the other day. Prior to their appearance in Court, they had been apprehended and lodged m separate cells in the Police Gaol. Between these two cells was another, occupied by a prisoner who was undergoing a Short sentence in the same establishment. The two accused persons had a conversation with each other, which was, of course, heard by the prisoner in the intervening cell, and in which, according to the latter’s evidence in Court, as reported in the “ Colonist,” they clearly incriminated themselves, although they knew that tlrt interjacent cell was occupied. The prisoner witness testified, inter alia, as follows :—“ The walls of the cell are of wood, and we can talk quite easily- to each other.” This is a modern instance of the “ Ear of Dionysius.” A remarkable thing is the trustfulness of the accused men in unbosoming themselves in tins manner, knowing all the time that the cell between them was occupied. As a matter, of fact, prisoners have a wellunderstood telegraphic code, by means of which they communicate with each other, in a sei’ies of taps, equivalent to the “dot and dash” of ordinary telegraphy. At night, when all is quiet, two men can converse with each other in this way though locked in separate cells at the extreme ends of a long corridor. In the case of the Nelson prisoners, they doubtless trusted to the intervening cell being occupied either by a “new hand” ignorant of the system, or to that honour which is said to prevail among thieves.